Many different types of clothes hanger supports have been used in garment receptacles over the years. Often, in the case of garment bags, special hangers having a short hooked end are used to fit over generally U-shaped support member depending a short distance from the top panel of the bag. The short hooked end allows the hanger to be inserted transversely through the small space between the support bar of the U-shaped support member and the top panel of the bag. Such hangers usually have pivoted hooked portions, which allows normal-sized hooks to be provided on the end opposite the short-hooked end, so that the same hangers can be used to hang garments on a conventional clothes closet support rod.
This type of arrangement can be used when there is sufficient room for the hanger to be manipulated so that the end portion can be transversely fitted over the support bar. In one type of garment bag configuration, however, corner pockets provided in the upper portion of the interior of the bag are so closely spaced that there is little room to maneuver the clothes hanger, making it very difficult or impossible to transversely place the hooked end portion of a hanger over the usual type of hanger support bar. Complicating the problem further is the fact that when the corner pockets are deep, extending vertically downward a considerable distance, the hanger support structure has to be correspondingly lowered to allow the hanger arms to fit under the pockets. When this is done, the top panel of the garment bag is no longer close enough to the hanger support to act as a barrier to upward movement of the hanger during use of the bag, requiring some other retaining means to be provided to prevent such unwanted movement.
One way of overcoming this space limitation problem is to provide a support which does not require the hanger to be inserted in the usual transverse manner. Although not designed with this problem in mind, hanger supports have been developed in the past which permit clothes hangers to be inserted from the front of the garment bag over an outwardly extending hanger support member. One such arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,883,003, issued on May 13, 1975 to Samhammer et al, wherein a generally U-shaped clip is mounted from the top panel of a garment bag with the open end of the clip facing the front of the bag. An eccentrically mounted rotatable disc allows access to the hanger support area when rotated to its open position and closes the open end of the clip when rotated to its closed position. A latch is provided to hold the disc in its closed position, and upstanding retention ears are provided on the clip in the hanger support area to prevent hangers from falling out after they have been set in place but before the disc has been closed.
Although a hanger can be inserted directly toward the back of the garment bag with the Samhammer et al arrangement, this design has its drawbacks. There is no provision for use with deep corner pockets, where the hanger support would have to be spaced a considerable distance from the top panel of the garment bag. The need for the retention ears limits the usable hanger support space, and the type of disc latch employed requires the user to make sure, as a separate step in the loading of the garment bag, that the latch is positively closed after inserting the hangers. In addition, the flat clip configuration is not well suited for supporting the curved hooked portions of the ordinary type of clothes hanger.
Another hanger support design which permits hangers to be inserted from the front of the garment bag is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,058, issued on Oct. 21, 1986 to Gregg et al. In this arrangement an upper jaw is pivotally mounted to be moved into contact with a stationary lower jaw in order to clamp a hanger hook therebetween. A lever pivotally mounted on the upper jaw support structure contains a cam surface which acts to lower the upper jaw when the lever is pushed down. When the lever is fully depressed it is in its closed position, acting as a barrier to the hanger support area. The cam arrangement holds the lever in its closed position.
Although the hanger support surface of Gregg et al is shown spaced from the top panel of the garment bag, it has other drawbacks. The lever arrangement for holding the jaws in locked condition requires the user to positively push the lever until the cam has reached a point where it can act to hold the lever in place. If this is not done, or if the lever is bumped during use of the bag, the barrier to the hanger support area can open and the hangers will not be held in place. The support surface is not designed to accommodate the curved hooked portion of a clothes hanger, and in addition the use of levers and a cam surface makes the hanger support structure more complicated than desired, and consequently more costly to produce.
It would be desirable to have a hanger support structure which does not require the hangers ends to be transversely set in place within the confines of the interior space of the garment bag, and which does not suffer from the drawbacks of prior art hanger supports. Preferably, the hanger support should lock the hangers in place in a more automatic manner than is done in the prior art. In addition, it would also be desirable to have a hanger support surface which is able to conform more closely to the contour of the hanger hook, which would hold the hanger in place more securely and also prevent distortion of the hook. It would further be desirable to provide an improved hanger support structure which is relatively inexpensive to produce.